Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1887-09-17
The Federal Constitution.
A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. SKETCH OF
ITS HISTORY.

The celebration during this week
of the one hundredth anniversary of
the signing of the constitution of the
United States OF America will lead,
no doubt, to study of that vener
able document which has endured
for Gentry in spite of the attacks
upon it by its acknowledged friends
and the support given it at times by
it's professed enemies. In view of
the forthcoming celebration short
statement of the history of the sign
ing of the constitution may not be
untimely, and may lead to its perus-
al by many persons who have but a
faint idea of what It really is and for
what it provides.
The close of the revolutionary war
and the consequent removal of the
causes that had leagued together the
thirteen American colonies for the
common threatened for time to de-
feat the very ends toward which the
history of the past ten years had
tended. In most of the newborn
States feeling against tories led to
complications difficult to settle; the
confederacy was admittedly weak
the older colonies were becoming
powerful States, and with their in-
crease of power arose the tendency
to become Independent of each other;
new States were springing up in the
wilderness; the rights OF individual
States and the nation to the vast re-
eions of the West were in dispute,
aud the Congress of the Confederacy
presented spectacle of a body pow
erless TO annul acts of State Legisla-
lures contrary to its actions, weak
ened in force by State jealousies and
vainly struggling under the incubus
of the war cloud accumulated in
bringing forth nation whose loose
ly-jointed members refused to act
tremendously to settle the debt. To
the failure ofthe impost amendment,
by which it was sought to aid Con-
gress in settling of debt troubles, and
the rebellion of Shay's in Massachu-
sets, by which the power of Con-
gress was clearly shown to be weak,
were probably the two events which
decided the leaders of public opin-
ion to seek a more perfect union.
Upon the invitation of Virginia,
twelve delegates from five States,
namely, New York, New Jersey,
Delaware, Pennsylvania and Vir-
ginia, met in September, 1776, at An
napolis, and, not having power to
do otherwise, discussed for four
days the necessity of strengthening
the government. In accordance with
a recommendation by this meeting,
which was approved by Congress, in
February, 1887, the constitutional
convention met in Philadelphia on
May IA, 1887, but was not organized
until May 25, and the result of the
debates lasting four months the con-
stitnation was created. Delegates
were present from all the thirteen
States except Rhode Island, and
among them we're Rufus King, Ell
bridge Gerry, of Massachusetts,
Roger Sherman, Oliver Ellworth, of
Connecticut Alexander Hamilton,
Robert Yates, of New York; VIM.
Livingston, VIM. Peterton, of New
Jersey; George Read, Richard Bar
rett, of Delaware; Benjamin Frank
lin, Robert Morris, Gouverneur
Morris, Thos. Mifflin. of Pennslyva-
MIA James McHenry, Daniel Car
rol, Luther Martin, of Maryland
James Madison, Edmund Randolph:
George Mason, George Wythe, of
Virginia; John Rutledge, Charles
Pinkney, Of South Carolina; Alex
ander Martin, Hugh Williamson, of
North Carolina; John Lang Ion, of
New Hampshire, and Abraham
Baldwin, of Georgia. The sessions
of the convention were private, and
the details of the proceedings are to
be gathered from the letters of inGi-
viduals like Yates, of New York, and
Martin, of Maryland, and the pains
taking work of Madison. George
Washington, who nearly four years
before had resigned his commission
as commanderin-chief ofthe Ameri-
can army ard had retired to private
life, was again called to the front in
the service of his country and pre-
sided over the convention. The two
plans for union-the Virginia plan,
proposed by Randolph, and the New
Jersey plan, proposed by Patterson
were debated for month. The
latter, giving the same power in Con-
gress to small States and large, was
rejected on June IS, and after long
discussion of the Virginia plan it
was, with some important modifica-
tions. and after several COMPROMISES